


ice crystals

by skuls



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 12:46:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11380479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skuls/pseuds/skuls
Summary: Mulder and Scully get trapped in a giant freezer.





	ice crystals

**Author's Note:**

> this story was heavily inspired by the freezer scene in castle 3x17: countdown (writ. andrew marlowe), although the circumstances are different. both contain cuddling in a freezer and talking, though.
> 
> original post here: https://how-i-met-your-mulder.tumblr.com/post/162512000943/dont-know-if-it-sparks-anything-but-id-love-to

“Why is it always fucking freezing,” Scully mutters furiously, her voice slowed by the cold.

“Because we’re unlucky like that,” Mulder mumbles, and she chuffs a laugh into his neck, her breath ballooning out in a white cloud. They’re curled around each other in an attempt to conserve warmth. He’s clutching her cold hand in both of his, his thumb against her pulse. He wants to feel her life. (The space between beats is slowing, and that scares him more than anything.)

“Too bad we don’t have sleeping bags,” he tries to joke with her, but the tone is all wrong, slow and muddled by the cold. They are dying, slowly, freezing to death. Just another close call they’ve had in as many months. Scully is barely out of the hospital from her injury in New York, she hardly deserves this. They both deserve a break.

“Too bad we don’t have jackets,” Scully says. “Too bad we’re not out of here and chasing down our suspect.”

“Scully, I’m sorry,” he says. And he is - it’s his fault, he’s the one who suggested they search the warehouse. Chasing one man and finding three. It’d been easy, even with their training, for the two of them to be overpowered and locked in a giant freezer. (They’d just threatened the other to get them to cooperate. They’d figured out how to break them in three minutes flat.)

And now here they are. Trapped in a freezer with no heavy clothes and no way out. They lost their guns. After about fifteen minutes of banging and yelling and picking at the lock until their knuckles and fingertips were bruised, Scully suggested they huddle together to conserve warmth. They were actually on a task force this time, and someone was bound to notice them missing sooner or later. So they’re waiting. That’s all they can do. Antarctica all over again. 

Scully sighs. “It’s not your fault.” Her free arm wraps hard around his waist and he hugs her closer. “This is just my luck, though,” she slurs, bitterness coming through even in her cold-muddled tone. “First case after my medical leave and I get locked in a f-f-freezer.”

“Scully, hey. Scully.” Her pulse is still under his fingers. He presses his face into her hair. “We’re gonna get out of this,” he says, clenching his jaw so his teeth don’t chatter. “We always do. We survived Antarctica, didn’t we?”

Scully laughs faintly. “I don’t know how the fuck we did.” She balls her fist into his suit jacket. “I was weak, you were unconscious, we were literally in the middle of nowhere…”

“Luck. Faith. Whatever you want to call it.” His voice is starting to slow, starting to rasp. “We always get out of this stuff.”

“Mmm.” She’s silent for a minute. He tugs her closer, kissing the top of her head. Feels her pulse. _They’ll come_ , he tells herself. And then Scully speaks again, slowly: “I almost miss Antarctica at this point.”

He chuffs out a laugh. “Not me. That was terrifying.”

“Coming in to rescue me with no visible plan of how to get out?”

“Losing you,” he clarifies. She doesn’t say anything, so he clarifies further. “When I thought you were going to Utah… and then the paramedics took you away because the bee stung you and they…”

“The bee,” Scully murmurs. Her hand loosens its hold on his jacket and he’s briefly terrified of what it means - whether she’s pulling away from him emotionally or just fading away in general. “You never talk about the bee.”

They’ve talked about the bee about a hundred times since last summer, trying to figure out the virus it carried. “Scully, what-” he starts in confusion.

“You never talk about what the bee stopped.” Puffs of cold air come out of his mouth as it hangs open in confusion. Scully is shivering as she pulls away sluggishly to look him in the eye. “The kiss,” she explains. “You n-n-never mention it.”

He cups her cheek to try and warm her up, but there is no warmth in this place. “Scully, I told you I _loved_ you.” He always thought she understood that, always thought she’d taken the easy way out…

“Drugged,” she mumbles. “And that was m-m-months later. Afterwards, you never…" 

“I was s-s-scared to talk to you about it.” There’s so much he’d like to do in this moment if it weren’t for the fact that they are freezing to death. “I didn’t know how you f-f-felt.”

Scully looks at him. Her gaze is muted but still fully there. Her eyelashes are dotted with white. She scoots closer, hugging him tightly as she tucks her head into his shoulder. “God, Mulder,” she murmurs. “We’re idiots. W-w-we have terrible timing.”

He brushes his fingers over her hair. It’s full of ice crystals as well. “W-w-what…”

“I wish we’d had this talk months ago,” Scully mumbles. Her grip loosens slightly on his jacket. “W-w-we could’ve had some time… instead of doing it while we were…. s-s-slowly freezing…”

“So you…” he starts, but he’s unable to complete the sentence. (God, if he’d known…)

“I do,” she slurs, her nose brushing his shoulder. Her words trail off slowly, quieting at the end like they’ve been sanded smooth. And then the effort to talk seems too great. 

He holds her. Their hearts beat. Things start to fade away. 

—

Hospital lights blurry above him. He sits up, panicked, blanket falling into his lap. “What-”

“Sir, please settle down…” a nurse is telling him. 

“What happened?”

“Your fellow agents found you and Agent Scully, you have hypothermia, you’re mostly rewarmed at this point but…”

“Where’s Scully?” He shoves at the blankets and tries to stand, heading for the door of the room. 

“Your partner is in another room… sir, please calm down…”

“Scully!” he shouts. His motions are clumsy, he still feels numb all over, but he has to find her. “Scully!”

“Sir…”

She appears at the door, blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “Calm down, Mulder, I’m fine,” she says quickly, holding up a hand. Addressing the nurse, she adds, “I’ll stay in here, if you don’t mind,” in a tone too firm to argue with. The nurse nods, reluctantly, and steps aside to let her in. She sits beside him on the bed, taking his hand in hers. The nurse instructs them both to relax and not move around too much. It’s not a severe case, but they want to monitor them for a while. Scully nods. The man informs them that he’s going to get them something hot to drink and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

Mulder rubs her fingers with his, overwhelmed. It seems like the worst of everything has already passed, but he is still scared. The panic always takes a while to fade. He hates almost-dying slow like that, hates having to watch it. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She squeezes his hand. “You?”

“Okay.” He pulls her hand up and kisses the back of it in relief. Her forehead furrows and she pulls her hand out of his. Something inside him thunks. 

But the next thing he knows, she is leaning across the space between them and cupping her face in his. She kisses him briefly. It feels like the first, the most, heat between them. “Unfinished business,” she says, pulling back, her thumbs stroking his cheeks. He smiles.


End file.
